Geffen Playhouse brings original Broadway cast of 'Purpose' to L.A. in 2026-27 season

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

When Times theater critic Charles McNulty declared Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony Award-winning play “Purpose” the best new drama of 2025, he wrote, “I won’t hold my breath for an L.A.production.” As it turns out, he didn’t have to.

The L.A.premiere of “Purpose,” featuring its original Broadway cast, will lead Geffen Playhouse’s 2026-27 season with a batch of performances beginning in November.

The Geffen’s artistic director, Tarell Alvin McCraney, has been striving to get the dramatic satire about a prestigious Chicago Black political dynasty to L.A.since he saw it in previews at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre, where he is an ensemble member.

“It’s had a meteoric ride, and we’re very fortunate to be able to get it to come to us after Broadway,” McCraney said.Entertainment & Arts Center Theatre Group, Geffen Playhouse and Pasadena Playhouse leaders face political and cultural headwinds amid economic hardships battering L.A.’s theater landscape.The Geffen’s upcoming season continues with the West Coast premiere of Bess Wohl’s Ms.

Magazine-inspired “Liberation” and the L.A.premiere of Ngozi Anyanwu’s sibling saga “The Monsters,” along with the first-ever staging of L.A.

playwright Grace McLeod’s real estate comedy “Closing Costs.” Capping off the year is a production of Alice Childress’ modern classic, “Wine in the Wilderness,” set amid the Harlem Uprising of 1964.Broadway icon LaChanze Sapp-Gooding is set to direct.

With this lineup, McCraney said he aimed to “engage us in tough questions that are facing our communities, but in the most joyous or innovative ways possible.” “As a person who is newer to the L.A.community, I recognize that there’s so much facing us in terms of economics to housing to wars and violence near and far,” he said, adding that with such serious issues in mind, people need spaces f...